Cybersecurity workers with AI skills are in high demand in India as companies want experts to combat threats.
Among the most sought-after skills in cybersecurity include security architects, security engineers, incident responders, and fraud analysts.
Kunal Ruvala, SVP and General Manager at Palo Alto Networks India said: “The threat landscape has evolved from simple malware to sophisticated attacks like ransomware.
“The rise of generative AI has enabled threat actors to execute evasive, unique, and destructive zero-day attacks.
“With the expanding attack surface and evolving threats, proficiency in network security, incident response, cloud security, AI-driven threat detection, and regulatory compliance is essential,”
With the evolving threats, proficiency in network security, incident response, cloud security, AI-driven threat detection, and regulatory compliance has become essential.
Sowmya Vedarth, a partner at Deloitte India, observes that as digitization and security threats increase, the nature of cybersecurity skills is rapidly evolving.
The focus shifts from monitoring and testing to prevention and cyber defense roles.
Vedarth said: “The US and developed markets pay higher for cyber skills.
“However, with the rise of GCCs, we are seeing a demand from professionals for faster migration of both proactive defence and monitoring jobs to India.”
“The rise of generative AI has enabled threat actors to execute evasive, unique, and destructive zero-day attacks”
RV Raghu, ISACA ambassador and director at Versatilist Consulting India, said there’s a need for a wide variety of roles that blend functional and security responsibilities with technical skills.
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He said: “Both defensive roles such as security engineers and devsec ops engineers and offensive roles such as risk and fraud analyst and incident responders will be in demand.”
According to a recent Foote Partners survey certifications such as ISACA’s Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) and Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer (CDPSE) have been shown to increase salaries by 10 percent and market value by 11 percent.
The Foote Partners IT Skills Demand and Pay Trends Report also highlights the growing interest in AI-related skills.
Skills in machine learning operations (MLOps) and convolutional neural networks (CNNs) provide a pay premium and a significant increase in market value.
Additionally, data governance, data strategy, and risk analytics/assessment skills are highly valued.
